Judicial Nominees

In the final hours before the Senate left Washington for the August recess, the Senate confirmed four of the 24 judicial nominees ready for Senate review, and scheduled a vote for a fifth nominee upon their return in September. After the vote, American Constitution Society Executive Director Caroline Fredrickson lamented the Senate’s limited progress in getting judges confirmed, calling upon Senators to make “extraordinary efforts to expedite the pace of confirmations” with their return next month. In a statement, Senate Judicial Chairman Patrick Leahy said of this crisis, “It is not accurate to pretend that real progress is being made in these circumstances. Vacancies are being kept high, consensus nominees are being delayed and it is the American people and the Federal courts that are being made to suffer.”

President Obama made two new judicial nominations this week: U.S. District Court Judge Adalberto José Jordán was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and litigator Miranda Du was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. There are now 56 judicial nominees awaiting confirmation.

The judicial vacancy crisis received even more attention this week with an NPR segment on President Obama’s diverse judicial nominees, featuring Fredrickson. "Obama is nominating many more diverse nominees than his predecessors ... strikingly so," Fredrickson told NPR. "But the nominees are not getting confirmed with the same kind of success."

The Senate confirmed Perkins Coie partner Michael H. Simon to the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon by a vote of 64 to 35. Simon was originally nominated by President Obama almost a year ago, and had been twice approved by the Judiciary Committee, but the Senate delayed a vote on his nomination despite the declaration of a judicial emergency in Oregon.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Christopher F. Droney’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the nominee was “warmly received by Senators of both parties,” according to The Hartford Courant. The newspaper notes that Droney’s experience was “remarkably different” from that of President Obama’s two other nominees to this circuit. One, Robert Chatigny, was forced to withdraw his nomination after faced significant Republican opposition, and the other, Susan Carney, was confirmed “after several false starts.” The Judiciary Committee also held hearings on four district court nominees: Robert D. Mariani for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Cathy Bissoon for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mark R. Hornak for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and Robert N. Scola, Jr. for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The Committee again delayed a vote on former Kansas Attorney General Steve Six’s nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.